1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an injection molding system for inspecting a molded article molded by an injection molding machine and classifying the molded article in accordance with an inspection result.
2. Description of the Related Art
An article inspection and classification system for inspecting an article with an inspection apparatus to make a pass/fail judgment or the like and sorting the article in accordance with a result of the judgment has already been known in various fields. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-206710 describes a system for inspecting an article with a metal inspection unit, a shape inspection unit, and a weighing inspection unit and sorting the article into a sorting direction D0 for a pass, a sorting direction D1 for a weight-related failure, or a sorting direction D2 for a shape-related failure or a metal-related failure on the basis of inspection results from the inspection units. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-73155 describes a magnetic disk inspection apparatus for inspecting a magnetic disk with an inspection unit and grading the magnetic disk in accordance with defects severity grade determined by, for example, the sizes or number of detected flaws or foreign matters.
It is also known that a robot is used to transport a molded article into an inspection apparatus or the like, and a pass/fail judgment or the like is made on the basis of an inspection result from the inspection apparatus to classify the molded article, in an injection molding system.
In an injection molding system, an inspection apparatus for a molded article or the like is provided, the inspection apparatus inspects a molded article, and a pass/fail judgment or the like on the molded article is made on the basis of a result of the inspection. A method for the inspection and judgment is merely a method that divides articles into two groups, non-defective articles and defective articles, or a method that performs classification in accordance with defective article type or defect grade as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-206710 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-73155.
If a molded article is inspected and judged as a defective article, the defective article can be made into a non-defective article by subjecting the defective article to a post-treatment. A post-treatment process, however, depends on the details of a defect. The cause of occurrence of a defect depends on the type and details of the defect. Measures to be taken for preventing the occurrence of a defect depend on the type and details of the defect.